


The Shop Brat Life- Demos

by Princesszellie



Series: The Shop Brat Life [8]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Carshop!Au, Pacific Rim - Freeform, mechanic!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 17:34:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1696664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princesszellie/pseuds/Princesszellie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting a new car at no expense every 6 months or so is a good deal OR- No, no it's not, its a huge pain in the ass...</p>
<p>Herc's free ride some times has hidden costs.  </p>
<p>Part 8/? of the Shop Brat Life series of one shots based on my life as the boss's kid at a large car dealership.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shop Brat Life- Demos

Raleigh poked his head in Herc’s office, “Hey boss,”

Herc just put a finger up in the air to stall any further blather. It never freaking failed that when he was on the phone with the GM Regional Managers a Becket would come in looking for shit and bother him.

Said Becket took the hint, this was exactly why he didn’t want to be the messenger. Herc was usually very approachable but he had the feeling this wasn’t a good time or a good request. Fuck Newt for making him do this. “Hey Herc…Newt needs the keys to your demo…” he said in a slightly exaggerated whisper.

Herc didn’t even look at him just waved his hand in the direction of his keys hanging on the wall by his jacket. Raleigh just grabbed them and fled.

It was a couple hours later that Herc was reminded about the keys, and it was only because Newt finally grew the balls to come in and tell him that he just sold the car they went to. And yeah, it was bad news and his expression sent the squirrely salesman running. Herc really had grown fond of this demo; it was super loaded and had low miles- he had expected to have it for at least most of the summer.

“Damn it,” he muttered to himself as he gutted his possessions into a box. Well they weren’t all his, it really was shocking how much of the stuff he was rummaging out of _his_ demo was really Charlie’s. Or Max’s. How did this even happen?  
  
After he had all his stuff out of the car he sulked back into the building with his sad box of crap and went up to Pentecost’s office and dropped it on his desk. “Well?”

Stacker looked up at him over his glasses, “Yeah sorry about that Herc, they really wanted it.”

“Yeah I get that, but what do I get as a consolation prize…”

The General Manager cringed, “About that….”

…

“Shit.”

“Literally, it _is_ shit colored.” Tendo added unhelpfully. The look Herc shot him was pure murder so he kept the other witty things he had to add about the car to himself.

Herc was so pissed. This was a fucking insult. Not only was it two models down from his previous demo, it was a base line package, and it was ugly as sin. No. That was too kind. There really were no words to describe the color this car was.

In the end it was Chuck who found the perfect description. “Metallic flake baby poop brown.” He declared with a look of pure disgust on his face.

“Accurate.” His father agreed.

Angela seemed the most upset about the downgrade and the ‘poopiness’ of the car. “How long will we be stuck with this….thing?!” she asked incredulously, “I will _not_ be caught dead in that turd.” Chuck snorted loudly at his mother’s sudden burst of wit.

“I don’t know hunny,” Herc signed. “Hopefully not too long. It was all they had free on the lot tonight. I’m not happy about it either…trust me.”

 

The next morning Herc didn’t even bother to transfer all his personal keys onto the keys to the ‘Turd’, which turned out to be a good thing as, much to his total shock, Herman came down and asked for his keys _again_ and never came back with them.

“There’s a butt for every seat,” Pentecost said shaking his head, “I never thought we’d move that one…it’s just not very attractive.”

He made no comment but waited for his next ride.

 ...

“You know that feeling when you hit bottom and you figure that is it, but you suddenly realize that there is in fact another level of Hell?” Herc asked no one in particular as he looked over the ratty, off dealership brand ride. “This has totally been rear ended.” Yeah, the bumper was painted in cheap poor match after market paint. “You have to be shitting me.”

No one heard him because they all ran off like the cowards they were. The Hansen temper was legendary and every man (and woman) in the building knew that this was the kinda shit that set Herc off.  


But again it was his wife who had the biggest freak out over this latest ‘demo’. “This is just insulting! Are they doing this on purpose!? Did you do something wrong Hercules!?”

“Angie! I didn’t do anything…nothing is wrong!” Herc sighed in exasperation, “We are between auctions. Stacker promised they will find me something nice this weekend at Odessa. Just… relax.”

That wasn’t good enough for Angela; she rounded on Herc like a wildcat and went off like a mortar. His ears were ringing for a while that evening and he was still stinging from that tirade when he walked into Pentecost’s office and slammed the keys from the second offensive car on to his desk so hard the keyless flew apart.

“I am really sick of how I’ve been treated the last 72 hours. It’s starting to feel like an insult.”

“It’s not Herc, I promise.” Stacker just looked up at him unruffled.

“Yeah well it better not be. You have pissed off my wife Stack…she had a _shit_ fit last night. I’m not going home with anything less than a Le Saber…. Or I swear to god I will…”

“Just go take whatever you want for the weekend…” the General Manager interrupted. Time to disuse the Hansen Atom bomb before more than the keys took a hit.

“Seriously?”

“Yep, go to the key box and take whatever strikes your fancy. Monday morning we’ll have something all ready for you to have longer term. Go find something Chuck would like…” Pentecost smiled, knowing that Chuck and his whims were his ace in the hole. Worked like a charm….maybe?

The grin Herc was giving him was a little frightening, and he realized that he might have just made a very costly (perhaps literally so) mistake. “Oh…Stacks….Charlie is going to be so pleased…”

Yeah it wasn’t only gonna be Charlie who was going to be satisfied, Daddy was pretty happy with the prize he just took for himself.

 

When Herc pulled into the drive way with that bright yellow Hummer H2 he could hear Charlie’s scream of delight over the turned up radio. Oh yes, very very good choice Herc. Father of the year type material. This would be a great weekend, and he had a new car to look forward to on Monday. Or else maybe the 60k Hummer became permanent…

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah. As the second highest paid manager at the dealership my father was entitled to a 'demo' as part of his compensation. a demo was basically a fancy car which the company provided to him to use at no cost to him. They were usually higher end, low miles models that needed some 'seasoning' so that they could sell them in a better price range. And some times...when things were out of whack they were absolute shit. One had been rear ended, several were ugly or not up to package requirements and twice and ONLY TWICE were they 'off brand' (not the brand sold by my dad's store. SUPER insulting.). Yeah I could write a whole novel about the demos we have had over the years. At last count there had been nearly 70 individual models we could remember or had in pictures. Some of them stuck around for months and we grew attached, several we couldn't see the back end of leave fast enough. 
> 
> The 'turd' in this story was a real thing. And my mother really did have several fits about it.It was the ugliest shade of brown i have ever seen. No lie. and the SOLD IT! THE NEXT DAY! It was just insane.The events as they are detailed happened. That was one of the weirdest three days in our demo history. the turn around was never replicated, and in a fit of irony the long term one they gave us on day four my dad totaled on a deer a month later. oops. 
> 
> Also, the Hummer was one of many my dad brought home. They were his favorite. But only on short terms as they were very piggy. :)


End file.
